CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE IMPACT THAT THE NEWS OF COVID HITTING THE SHORES OF AUSTRALIA HAD ON YOUR BUSINESS ?
JULIA : When COVID initially hit I was devastated . I did not think Miss Biscuit would survive . I immediately closed my Sydney store and kept my Melbourne store operating for online shopping . Both my Melbourne and Sydney stores at the time were heavily reliant on classes for income and so I was very worried that I would not be able to keep my staff and the stores operating without classes . they had to say ...
MIRANDA : It was really scary from a business point of view because sadly we were already effected quite badly as we export our products globally . We felt the sales decreasing back in January . This year we never quite picked up sales after Christmas so when it hit Australia it was in the thick of it globally and we were already down in sales by 85 %. As a small business we rely heavily on our monthly sales as I ’ m completely self funded and there is only a certain amount of cashflow in the bank to sustain the business with no income coming through . Paying 12 wages with very little sales was really , really hard . There were a lot of hours spent trying to quickly diversify and find ways to stay ahead . No one knew what was happening and how long for so almost everyday the plan was changing .
LISA : As COVID started to take hold early March , and being located in Melbourne , this is typically still peak season . By late March every wedding , engagement and birthday function was wiped from my calendar . Postponements of dates and total cancellation of events started to flood in . I made the difficult decision to offer full refunds where possible - after all these are my clients many of whom have been with me from when I started out 12 years ago .
MONICA : As we all know , Covid had a dramatic effect on the cake industry and my orders took a hit just like everyone else ’ s . By March 2020 , everything had ground to a halt .
My customers and my business were my first priority . I was so grateful that these incredible clients asked to postpone instead of cancelling orders . Or asked to hold the money for another function , which I was really happy to do without any penalty . This was all about supporting each other through a very uncertain time . And I wanted to support my clients as much as they were supporting me .